Determined to achieve each of the above through the power of my pinterest boards

Tag: One Direction

So last week school started for both my kids. It’s a new school for my son who is a fifth grader – one year in a new school. He seems to be happier (except for the lack of air conditioning in the school – it’s funny how I’d forgotten that detail over the last 30+ years since I went to the same elementary school). When asked in a questionnaire what he would do with a million dollars – he politely said he’d donate it to the school for air conditioning. When asked what he feared most – he claimed an entire school year without air conditioning. Lucky for him Ohio is a 4-weather year, predominately cold and snowy (or so it feels)

Towards the end of my vacation from work I began working on my family tree. Not sure how factual it is but when I added my grandmother, she was already in the system, and there is apparently a line of hers that is traced back to Switzerland 1132. I’ll be double checking things as I go along – but it’s awfully fascinating seeing all of it.

Hubby found a job and began it last week. Life will hopefully return to normal.

Trying to focus on fun things in life again and getting the house all organized and decluttered (don’t I know how to have a good time?).

Heading to the ballpark to see our local minor league team play tomorrow – it’s followed up with One Direction fireworks – hoping they play some Girl Almighty to go along with the beautiful display!

July 4th is one of my favorite holidays. Being the history geek that I am, I get a kick out of wishing my country a happy 240th birthday. Not just because I’m patriotic. The Revolutionary War is my favorite war (I like to think it was a war that was worth fighting for).

This year I seemed to enjoy it even more. When I went to Boston last fall with my friend to see One Direction, and I brought up making sure that we hit the historical spots during the day (I couldn’t go to Boston and not see these great spots) it put the Revolutionary War in an entirely different perspective.

I saw the places where our forefathers met in secret to plan how we were going to declare our independence from an unjust government. You think taxes are bad now? They taxed us colonies way more than they taxed those in Britain just because we were the colonists. They tried to go about it in more peaceful ways (dumping tea and the like) but the British didn’t get it and punished us further.

So the Revolutionary War began. And as the ultimate underdog the United States won.

So many people dislike history and hate that we have to learn it (this would be my husband and daughter…. I think my son may be getting into it more like me) but history can be exciting and something we can learn from in an attempt to not make the same mistake twice.

These are photos from my Boston trip and the spots where Paul Revere, Samuel Adams and the like met to plan so we can be free today.

To the nation I say Happy Birthday. To my forefathers I say Thank you.

So during the family party for my boy child yesterday I learned a valuable lesson – 2 platefuls of potato chips, dip (Lawson’s – the good kind), Doritos and some “S’More Mix” (this is a combination of milk chocolate chips, Golden Grahams and mini-marshmallows) mixed with punch (rainbow sherbet, 7-Up and Hawaiian Punch) even spread out over the course of the afternoon and you have one sick me. I stayed feeling crappy like that for the rest of the evening. Oh wait there was a slice of cake too…

But it was all good.

After eating so much “junk” I had to admit I thought the scale would tell a different tale this morning – but alas I’d only gained .2 pounds. I didn’t think that was so bad. Still have lots of work to do, but I do plan on heading to the gym after work tonight – the question is will I do my water walking or ride the recumbent bike. I’m leaning to the latter.

This week one of my goals is to work on time management better. I have so many things I attempt to do each week and it seems like I don’t even accomplish any of what I want to on my mental list. But I am determined with the week ending in a new month of being able to get myself into a better groove.

That’s all for now – I’m off to continue my listening of One Direction… I’m on my second repeat of Girl Almighty presently. It does get me in a mood to get up and just move – have a great day!

Ever do that semi-wild and wacky road trip with a friend? Well, that was me the weekend of September 11 through September 13 when my friend and I, at her urging, got on a plane and headed to Boston to see the final concert of the US tour of One Direction.

Now let me give you a bit of backstory. I know nothing of One Direction. My girl-child dislikes them, so my only reference to One Direction was their first song of That’s What Makes You Beautiful because I am that far behind with some of the current groups.

So I had less than a week to become versed in 1D music. Well, I was lucky to finish listening to all the songs on their concert playlist the day we flew to Boston.

I have learned that going to Boston was probably the best place for me to go and see One Direction (however, getting to and from Gillette Stadium STINKS!!! There is only 1 way to get their and 1 way to get back home and so you get stuck in like 3 miles of traffic that is just horrendous). Below is a photo my friend took on our return trip.

I felt bad as we missed the first opening act – Augustana – because of sightseeing, which was my idea. I am a huge history buff and as it was my first time in the City of Boston (in 1990 I went on a trip to London with school and we had a layover in Boston, but I was never allowed to leave Logan airport), I had to see the city where the Revolutionary War began (yes, history geek is the proper term for someone like me, I am probably beyond a buff). We saw a bunch of cool sites on our trolley ride and harbor cruise….

The Old North Church that Paul Revere rode out on his (unsuccessful) midnight ride.

Paul Revere’s Home – 16 kids, 2 bedrooms, need I say more?

The site of the Boston Massacre (only 5 people actually died)

Because my friend and I wanted to see the Old North Church and Paul Revere’s house, our trolley tour guide, Erik, told us it would take us 25 minutes to walk the entire Freedom Trail. Well friends, let me inform you, it took about 1.5 hours just to walk not even half of it, as the church and home are about halfway on the trail. We saw what we wanted to see, re-did the last 3 stops to get back to where we started and got to our rental car and drove to the hotel, got ready in a jiffy and then made our way to Gillette Stadium. Having gone to downtown Cleveland for dozens of events over the years, I was thinking that going to Foxboro would be a similar experience. I was wrong (see above exit picture).

But as a person who really wasn’t totally familiar with their music, the members or anything… I really had a great time. I was so self conscious that I wasn’t going to be “into” it enough for my friend (who just LOVES 1-D, despite just entering the world of being middle aged – it’s refreshing to see her perspective of just wanting the boys to be happy, I on the other hand found Liam to be rather cute while watching him at the concert – so what if I’m 20 years his senior – it could work). I really enjoyed the songs (so I’ll always be a sucker for peppy music) and left the show really not being able to listen to Girl Almighty enough times (seriously, this morning while typing up my blog posts I must have hit play on it about 6 times, and then it happened again at lunch).

My girl child finds me to be “gross” because I enjoyed this concert… but how could I not… good music (even in the rain), an awesome friend on a fabulous weekend adventure. It was awesome. And I can honestly say I haven’t stopped thinking about the trip since I came home.

So if you ever have an opportunity to jet away for a few days and escape life doing something you never thought you’d do… I say go for it – it could be one of the best adventures you ever have!

Have you ever had such a weekend?

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